Adelaide McGuinn Cromwell (November 27, 1919 – June 8, 2019) was an American sociologist and professor emeritus at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, where she co-founded the African Studies Center in 1959, and directed the graduate program in Afro-American studies from 1969 to 1985. She was the first African-American instructor at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

and at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

. In 1974 she was appointed as the first African-American Library Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She has written several books on black history, including a groundbreaking study of Boston's black upper class and a biography of

Adelaide Casely-Hayford Adelaide Casely-Hayford, Order of the British Empire, MBE (née Smith; 2 June 1868 – 24 January 1960), was a Sierra Leone Creole people, Sierra Leone Creole advocate, an activist of cultural nationalism, a teacher and fiction writer and a femi ...

. She died in June 2019 at the age of 99.

Early life and education

Adelaide Cromwell was born into a prominent

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

family on November 27, 1919. Her grandfather,

John Wesley Cromwell John Wesley Cromwell (September 5, 1846 – April 14, 1927) was a lawyer, teacher, civil servant, journalist, historian, and civil rights activist in Washington, DC. He was among the founders of the Bethel Literary and Historical Society and the ...

, was a well-known civil rights activist and educator, and her father, John Wesley Cromwell Jr., was the city's first black

certified public accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Sta ...

. Her aunt,

Otelia Cromwell Otelia Cromwell (April 8, 1874 – April 25, 1972) was a distinguished scholar and Professor of English Language and Literature at Miner Teachers College. She was the first African American to graduate from Smith College, receiving a B.A. in Class ...

, was the first black graduate of

, and her cousin,

Edward Brooke Edward William Brooke III (October 26, 1919 – January 3, 2015) was an American politician of the Republican Party, who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1967 until 1979. Prior to serving in the Senate, he served as t ...

, was a Senator of Massachusetts and the first popularly elected Black State Attorney General. Cromwell graduated from Dunbar High School in 1936. She received an A.B. degree in sociology from Smith College in 1940 and an M.A. degree in sociology from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1941. She earned a certificate in social casework from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

, and a Ph.D. in sociology from Radcliffe College in 1946.

Career

After graduating from Radcliffe, Cromwell taught sociology at Hunter College, where she was the first African-American instructor. She again broke the color line when she taught at Smith College in the late 1940s. In 1951 she joined the faculty at

, where she taught sociology until 1985. In 1959 Cromwell co-founded the university's African Studies Center. From 1969 to 1985 she directed the African-American Studies program. In 1960, Cromwell traveled to Ghana to convene the first conference of West African social workers. She also served on a committee commissioned by the American Methodist Church to evaluate the state of higher education in the Belgian Congo (now the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

). She was appointed in 1974 as Library Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the first African American in this position. In 1983 she convened a conference of policymakers and scholars at the

University of Liberia The University of Liberia (UL or LU in older versions of abbreviation) is a publicly funded institution of higher learning located in Monrovia, Liberia. Authorized by the national government in 1851, the university opened in 1862 as Liberia Coll ...

. Cromwell has served on the executive council of the

American Society of African Culture The American Society of African Culture (AMSAC) was an organization of African-American writers, artists, and scholars. The society was founded as a result of the Congress of Negro Writers and Artists in 1956 based on the idea of the French '' :f ...

, the now-defunct American Negro Leadership Conference in Africa, and the

United States Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

's Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA). She is a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

, the

African Studies Association The African Studies Association (ASA) is a US-based association of scholars, students, practitioners, and institutions with an interest in the continent of Africa. Founded in 1957, the ASA is the leading organization of African Studies in North ...

, the

Association for the Study of African American Life and History The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is an organization dedicated to the study and appreciation of African-American History. It is a non-profit organization founded in Chicago, Illinois, on September 9, 1915 ...

(ASALH), and the

American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...

. She is president of the Heritage Guild, which she co-founded in 1975 to document, preserve, and raise awareness of Boston's black history. At that time, few Bostonians realized the historical significance of sites such as the

African Meeting House The African Meeting House, also known variously as First African Baptist Church, First Independent Baptist Church and the Belknap Street Church, was built in 1806 and is now the oldest black church edifice still standing in the United States. It ...

on Beacon Hill, or knew that Boston's West End had once been a major center of the

abolitionist movement Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

. The Heritage Guild has called the public's attention to historical sites and the achievements of people such as

Butler R. Wilson Butler Roland Wilson (1861–1939) was an attorney, civil rights activist, and humanitarian based in Boston, Massachusetts. Born in Georgia, he came to Boston for law school and lived there for the remainder of his life. For over fifty years, he ...

, founder of the Boston NAACP. Cromwell has written several books on black history, including a study of Boston's black upper class, ''The Other Brahmins.'' She was honored by the

Massachusetts Historical Commission The Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) is a review board for state and federal preservation programs for the United States state of Massachusetts. It consists of 17-member panel of appointed representatives from state and private agencies and ...

in 2015 for her contributions.

Selected writings

Books

* * * * *

Articles

* * * * Barbour, Floyd B., ed. (1970). "Black Education in the Seventies: A Lesson From the Past". ''The Black Seventies.'' Porter Sargent Publishers. pp. 51–67. * * *

Honors and awards

* Citation from the National Order of Côte d'Ivoire * Smith College Medal *

Carter G. Woodson Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875April 3, 1950) was an American historian, author, journalist, and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). He was one of the first scholars to study the h ...

Medal from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History * Honorary degrees from

Southeastern Massachusetts University The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMass Dartmouth or UMassD) is a public research university in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. It is the southernmost campus of the University of Massachusetts system. Formerly Southeastern Massachusetts Un ...

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

, Boston University, and Smith College * Historic Preservation Award from the Massachusetts Historical Commission, 2015

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cromwell, Adelaide M. 1919 births 2019 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women writers Smith College alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Radcliffe College alumni Boston University faculty Smith College faculty Hunter College faculty American sociologists American women sociologists African-American historians American women historians African-American women academics American women academics African-American academics People from Brookline, Massachusetts Academics from Washington, D.C. Academics from Massachusetts Historians from Massachusetts 20th-century African-American women writers 20th-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women